Once upon a time there was a little airline that believed in LUV. And they practiced what they preached. Customers felt cared about, entertained, and were willing to be loyal and ignore little things like a terrible on-time record, and a funky seating system. The little airline LUVed their customers and did things like kept all-leather seats with the original Boeing 737 seat pitch, so they were the most comfortable ride in the domestic air. And the Chairman of the Board regularly rode the airline and talked with the passengers.
Many years passed, during which the customers LUVed the airline back. It grew and grew and became the only profitable airline in North America, because the customers LUVed the little airline.
But as the airline grew, it forgot to LUV the passengers. It figured that if they SAID they LUVed the passengers, the passengers would be fooled into thinking that it was still true. So they made silly commercials about not charging for fees.
Not charging for fees is nice, but if you qualify for any premium airline card you don't have to pay.
This little airline was of course, Southwest Airlines, which, until last week had the best reward program of any airline anywhere in the world.
And many people flew Southwest preferentially because of the reward program. Passengers could calculate, in their heads, how many flights they needed to the next free ticket. Passengers could tell if they were on the track to be on the A-List, which, in contrast to other airlines' premium programs actually gave passengers something tangible-- a better seat without having to queue up.
So now, "the program rewards passengers who pay more for tickets," Southwest said. They've established a "points" system which is difficult to calculate since it is way more complicated than "one flight=one point" of the old, and far better system.
And worst of all, they've split the A-List program into the "hoi polloi" and the real A-List, the Premium A-List. So now, some pigs are more equal than other pigs.
The reason I, personally, did not requalify for Aadvantage Platinum status this year (I am a lifetime Gold Aavantage member) is because I preferentially flew over 36 flights on Southwest last year.
Won't do that this year. I can get typical bad service from any airline...and points too.
Sometimes, companies get so full of themselves they forget to dance with who brung 'em.
Southwest, it seems, has done just that.
Bad airline, no biscuit!
And what does this have to do with automation? How many automation companies have done the same thing in the past two decades? We stopped giving Readers' Choice Awards for service several years ago because the end user service ratings became too low and too embarrassing to print.
Southwest proved for more than 30 years that customer loyalty is not rocket science. How could they forget that?
Look at your automation vendor, folks. If you are an end user, are they treating you with the same respect now that they have you by the (ahem!) minds and hearts as they did when they were courting you for your business? And if you are an automation vendor, look in the mirror. If you see Southwest Airlines, or any other denizen of the "Friendly Skies" looking back at you, maybe you should consider how you got to be in the Top 50 to begin with.
